scholarly journals BETWEEN SCORCHING HEAT AND FREEZING COLD: MEDIEVAL JEWISH AUTHORS ON THE INHABITED AND UNINHABITED PARTS OF THE EARTH

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Resianne Fontaine
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Extreme Temperatures ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human Habitation

The question of which areas of the earth are fit for human habitation and which ones are not is dealt with in several Hebrew scientific texts of the twelfth and thirteenth century. Medieval Jewish scholars such as Abraham bar [Hdotu]iyya, Samuel ibn Tibbon, and the three thirteenth-century Hebrew encyclopedists were familiar with theories of the oikoumene and its boundaries through Arabic sources. These Hebrew texts display a variety of views on the earth's habitability, all of which ultimately go back to antiquity. Whereas some texts adopted a division of the inhabited portion of the earth into seven climes, others divided the earth into five zones of temperature, of which two were habitable and three were not owing to extreme temperatures. Some of these Jewish authors also pay attention to the question of how climatological or astrological conditions in a given region influence the mental constitution of its inhabitants.

Cities Created by Modernity: A Fengshui Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 477-499
Author(s):  
Michael John Paton
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Long Term Survival ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human Habitation

The 2011 tsunami had a devastating effect on the east coast of Japan. Particularly poignant were the century-old markers on hillsides warning against building anywhere below. Nevertheless, such wisdom from traditional knowledge was disregarded because of the perceived invulnerability of the modern. This paper attempts to garner such traditional empirical knowledge regarding the siting of towns and cities by considering the Chinese art/science of fengshui (wind and water) or dili (principles of the earth), the original purpose of which was to site human habitation in the most favourable places for long term survival. This knowledge is then used to consider the placement of cities created by modernity, those founded on and flourishing through the advent of globalisation, such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, St Petersburg, and Sydney.

Old Norse Mythology as Sacred Narrative

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-102
Author(s):  
John Lindow
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Norse Mythology

This chapter presents a case study of one myth that we have from pictorial sources in the Viking Age, from poems almost certainly composed in the Viking Age, and from thirteenth-century sources, namely the encounter between the god Þórr (Thor) and his cosmic enemy, the World serpent, a beast that encircles the earth, in the deep sea. In this myth, Þórr fishes up the serpent, and depending on the variant, Þórr may or may not kill the serpent. I present and analyze the texts in more or less chronological order, from the older skalds through the Eddic poem Hymiskviða, through Snorri Sturluson in Edda, and compare the texts to the rock carvings that portray the myth. I argue that the issue of the death or survival of the serpent is less important than the simple fact that Þórr had the serpent on his hook.

Woe, Horror, Disaster, or Lament? Revisiting Translations of ouai in Revelation 8.13

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-305
Author(s):  
Barbara R. Rossing
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
English Translation ◽  
New Jerusalem ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Ecological Catastrophe

The difficulty of translating the Greek word ouai in three numbered “woes” of Revelation and in the exclamations of Babylon’s merchants and rulers poses a challenge for ecological hermeneutics. The most common English translation, “woe,” can imply God’s curse against the earth. “Alas” is the translation used in RSV and NRSV for the threefold laments in Rev 18, but not for the earlier references to ouai in regard to Earth or the inhabitants of Earth. The Common English Bible translates “Horror, horror, oh!” (Rev 8.13). The New Jerusalem Bible uses “disaster” in Rev 8.13 and 12.12, but “mourn, mourn” in ch. 18. Micah Kiel notes a thirteenth-century Latin manuscript, the Trinity Apocalypse, that portrays the eagle’s announcement in 8.13 as “Alas, alas, alas.” I will argue that it is important to find a consistent translation such as “alas” for all references to ouai that can convey God’s lament over the earth as well as God’s horror at ecological catastrophe.

scholarly journals Remote Senses, Intimate Ecologies:

IDEA JOURNAL ◽  
2010 ◽  
pp. 114-115
Author(s):  
Janine Randerson
Keyword(s):  
Living Room ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human Habitation

before we knew how to circle the earth, how to circumscribe the sphere of human habitation in days and hours, we had brought the globe into our living room to be touched by our hands and swirled before our eyes.1.

The Long Ecological Revolution

2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bellamy Foster
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human Habitation

From an ecological perspective, the Anthropocene marks the need for a more creative, constructive, and coevolutionary relation to the earth. In ecosocialist theory, this demands the reconstitution of society at large—over decades and centuries. However, given the threat to the earth as a place of human habitation this transformation requires immediate reversals in the regime of accumulation.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

The Siege of Berkhampstead Castle in 1216

1923 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Murray Kendall
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
The Earth

The earth-works at Great Berkhampstead which form one of the finest examples of a Norman Castle have also an interest almost unique in that they provide an example of (what may well be) siege-works of the thirteenth century. That this was the case was first suggested by Sir William Hope some ten or fifteen years ago, but the matter does not appear to have been fully considered in the light of all the available evidence.

scholarly journals Observational Instruments in the Arab Scientific Heritage Perspective Ismail ibn Heba Allah al-Hamawi | Al Alät Al Rosydiyyah fi At Thurost Al ‘Ilm Al ‘Aroby ‘Indä Ismäil ibn Hebä Allah al-Hämäwi

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Elkhayati Rifai
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Scientific Heritage ◽  
Astronomical Instruments ◽  
Islamic Civilization ◽  
Astronomical Instrument ◽  
Observational Instruments ◽  
Ancient Texts

The article is an edited and critical study of an unpublished astronomical text entitled "The Astronomical Instrument Known as The Two-Pronged Machine" of a Damascene astronomer from the thirteenth century AD, Ismail ibn Heba Allah al-Hamawi. ancient scientific texts on this instrument are written by al-Kindi then Ibn Abbad and al-Nayrizi. Al-Kindi's text is the only text published from ancient texts, and today we present to researchers in the development of astronomical instruments a new text to contribute to enriching our knowledge of the scientific tradition of astronomical instruments in Islamic civilization.

Brunei Rediscovered: A Survey of Early Times

1983 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Nicholl
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Early History ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Form Part ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Ancient Texts

About the middle of the thirteenth century the great Arab scholar, Ibn Sa'id, compiled his Bast al-Ard or Geography, in which he collected many ancient texts; amongst them is the following, which may offer a clue to the early history of Brunei:[The Khmers] lived with the Chinese in the eastern regions of the earth. Discord having broken out amongst them, the Chinese chased them towards the islands, and they remained there a certain time. The name of the King was Kamrun. Following this, discord broke out amongst them when they were in the islands, of which we shall speak later. Then those who did not form part of the Royal Family went away to the great island [Madagascar], and their Sultan dwelt in the city of Komorriya.

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